Taking an active role in the issues and challenges that impact society and the world at large is core to the philosophy at Rooster Punk. While we are just a small voice on a planet of seven billion noisy people, we don’t just want to sit on the sidelines and let the world pass us by. What would be the fun in that? The Rooster Punk Fundation is our way of giving back and trying to put a smile on the face of people from disadvantaged backgrounds all over the world. Thats why in 2015, we got behind a mission to help educate tens of thousands of the most impoverished children of Africa. Here’s the story of our journey with Mellon Educate.
Who are Mellon Educate? The Niall Mellon story
In 2002 a big-hearted Irishman stepped across a road. Not just any old road. A road that led to a poverty stricken township in the Cape of South Africa. The squalid living conditions Niall Mellon saw moved him deeply. He knew he had to do something to help these impoverished families and their children.
12 years later, with the collective help of more than 22,000 volunteers, he has managed to build over 25,000 homes – transforming the lives of 125,000 people.
Mellon then worked with the SA government, who rolled out their template to build millions of quality homes in townships across South Africa. Following an inspiring meeting with Nelson Mandela, Mellon decided to shift his focus from building homes to building schools. An educated Africa would bring hope and lasting change to a blighted continent.
In 2013, Mellon started planting bricks rather than just laying them. He knew that by building schools, providing mentoring and teacher support he would lay the seeds of growth and prosperity for the children of Africa. To date, Mellon Educate has built five schools, improved Maths and English pass rates by 32% and 25% respectively, helped tens of thousands of children and trained and mentored dozens of teachers.
The road to South Africa
The story started for Rooster Punk back in 2015, with us donating our creative time and skills to the development of a campaign website and video for the charity. This was part of the charity’s UK launch, who had previously had focussed on presence in Ireland.
The campaign website helped recruit volunteers for an overseas trip to South Africa (including two members of the Rooster Punk team, Paul Cash and Callum Murphy). The week-long trip – known as a building blitz – saw over 280 volunteers build 12 new classrooms, toilet and kitchen facilities at Ukhanyo Primary School in the township of Masiphumelele, Cape Town.
The next year, James Trezona and Charlotte Bennett from Rooster Punk flew out to South Africa to participate in a Building Blitz week with over 300 volunteers from the UK and Ireland. The task was to complete two school renovation projects at Ummangaliso and Kuyasa primary schools in the township of Khayelitsha.
Why not get involved?
Mellon Educate are seeking involvement and donations from companies of all sizes from startups to global blue chips alike. You can help in several ways:
- Become a corporate sponsor and help us secure the funding to build classrooms and entire school building projects.
- Help motivate your teams and workforce to join us as volunteers on our upcoming ‘Building Blitz’ projects
- Simply donate whatever you can afford.
Now it’s your turn to be part of this amazing story and keep the legacy alive.